locked gate with a no trespassing sign across dirt road
Locked gate blocking Forest Road 40E. Photograph by Véronique De Jaegher

Stuff you need to know, 12.17.23

“Kingston Residents Testify They Used Forest Road 40E For Decades Before Landowners Closed it This Year”
by Ben Neary, New Mexico Wildlife Federation
December 14, 2023

At a district court hearing in Truth or Consequences last week on a lawsuit involving the public’s right to access public lands filed by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and the Percha Creek Association, residents of Kingston, New Mexico, testified that they had used a forest road to reach the Aldo Leopold Wilderness for decades before landowners Mark and Ruth Bennett blocked it with a locked gate early this year. Presiding Judge Shannon Murdock said she intends to issue a written ruling next week on the plaintiffs’ request for an order requiring the Bennetts to remove the gate immediately while the lawsuit proceeds.

Click on the above link to read this free-access article.

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Diana Tittle
Diana Tittle

Diana Tittle, a member of the board of Sierra County Public-Interest Journalism Project, was the editor of the Sierra County Sun, the Citizen's precursor. A former resident of Truth or Consequences who now lives part-time in northern New Mexico, she spent her 42-year professional career in Cleveland, Ohio, where she worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine writer and editor, book author and publisher and publishing consultant. She is the recipient of a Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature.

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3 Comments

  1. It have such fond memories hiking down the road back in 1980 when I just moved to Hillsboro. We never thought of disturbing the natural surroundings as we hiked the road. People that don’t respect the great outdoors are going to find a way around locked fences. I would have never have seen this beautiful country if we hadn’t had an outlet to to get to the forest.

  2. Why is he being a bad guy,I love going to the creek look for rocks and sand to pan. All he is doing is just a ass way

  3. Well ,Why can’t we put a new road around his gate and his land this is a fire road and to get hurt people out if that is a thing to look at ,what has been the problem? We who used the road stayed on it ,and did not do a thing on his land .We all did are best to do no damage to his land or the forest .This is a Man that cant get along with the town ,people have live here to make a living and to share the the forest, ha Mr Gate can we come to agreement to open gate and we will not damage your land road to the forest, and we all will help to keep the bad out. Hope we all can get along and fix this ,Mr Gate hope you can try .

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